


Feels Like They're in Love

by TheShinySword



Series: Not a Gal, Not a Pal (Transdori Week 2020) [4]
Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Non-binary character, Polyamory, Romance, The Group Mind Has Decided You're in love (they're right), Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26631922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShinySword/pseuds/TheShinySword
Summary: The YukiRan Sub-Committee has practiced careful non-intervention for years but when Ran seems to mess up a perfect opportunity to move her relationship with Yukina to the next level it's time for the sub-committee to step in.
Relationships: Aoba Moca/Shirasagi Chisato, Hazawa Tsugumi/Hikawa Sayo, Imai Lisa/Satou Masuki, Imai Lisa/Satou Masuki/Wakana Rei, Imai Lisa/Wakana Rei, Minato Yukina/Mitake Ran, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Not a Gal, Not a Pal (Transdori Week 2020) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933525
Comments: 11
Kudos: 77
Collections: Transdori Week 2020





	Feels Like They're in Love

**Author's Note:**

> Can I even pretend this is a proper prompt? Uh, uh, Yeah it's... pride and solidarity! sure! Halfway through Transdori week, wish me luck with the rest (because it is not written uh oh)
> 
> Remember all the stories I write this week are interconnected! Check out the others if you like this one.

Something was happening in Yukina’s room.

Which really wasn’t news, there was almost always _something_ going on in there. Yukina’s social calendar was far sparser than Lisa’s and she’d never quite figured out how curtains worked. But Yukina’s normal activities were sitting silently at her desk and occasionally moving to lie silently on her bed. They very rarely included relatively animated talking (for Yukina, the slight raise of her hand) and, most importantly of all, sitting on her bed intimately close to her recent frequent guest.

Ran Mitake.

Lisa scooted off her bed, jabbering into her phone as she tried to stealthily peer across the small space between their windows, cloaking herself in her rose colored curtains. “Babes? I have to call you back.”

Masuki stopped in the middle of a story about the jerky cake he’d cooked up for Chu2’s birthday and laughed on the other end of the phone. “Oh did you forget to feed Yukina?”

“No!” Lisa pouted.

“Is she stuck out the window again?” Rei asked with gentle teasing concern.

“That’s not—” Lisa groaned, it was never fair when her girlfriends teamed up to pick on her—though she loved them anyway. “Everything isn’t about Yukina.”

“Just most things,” Masuki guffawed.

Rei was the first to break from teasing to reason. “It’s fine, date night soon?”

“Yes! So soon! Love you two!”

“Love you two.” Rei repeated.

“Yeah, yeah you’re alright!” Masuki hung up with a final playful, “Ha!” and a hurried “loveyoutwo.” Rei followed quickly.

Lisa whipped her phone down and got straight to business, training one eye on the animated but inaudible conversation between Yukina and Ran. She flipped through the dozens of group chats on her phone to the only one that mattered at the moment, one that had been frustratingly quiet even with Yukina and Ran working closely together on Roselia’s new song.

The YukiRan Romance Sub-Committee. Lisa wasn’t exactly sure what they were a sub-committee of but she chose not to question Moca’s naming conventions. It’d started off as an idle conversation during one of their long (looong) shifts at work and turned into an obsession. Their goal? Get Yukina and Ran together. Finally.

The reasoning was simple. Ran liked Yukina. Yukina (probably) liked Ran. Their personalities just made things _hard._ Together they had the emotional intelligence of a sleepy toddler. They needed help, desperately, or they were going to be stuck in their weird rivalry limbo forever.

Along the way Lisa and Moca gathered more like-minded love aficionados rooting for their friends’ happiness. They tried to keep their interference minimal, at least at first. For years they were certain that the pair just needed a little more time but as that time passed a schism began to form in the sub-committee with a new faction pushing for a more direct intervention. Luckily, Rinko was outvoted.

From the way they kept bursting each other’s personal space bubbles across the street they might have reached that last stage on their own, no intervention necessary.

** >Lisa: It’s go time.**

The response was immediate.

**> Rinko: YukiRan or RanYuki?? Need to know!**

****It wasn’t clear why Rinko cared so much about whose name came first but she said it had something to do with who’d kiss the other one. Lisa had her suspicions.

She snuck a look through the window. Both callous songstresses were perched on the edge of Yukina’s bed, Ran listening with an expression Lisa couldn’t read. Yukina’s hand covered Ran’s.

**> Lisa: YukiRan?**

** >Rinko: I thought so. Please keep reporting in! ^w^**

Rinko was so different via text. After almost five years of friendship, Lisa still wasn’t used to it. The others started to chime in.

**> Himari: WHAAAT!!!!!!!!??? ** **Why couldn’t they wait for me to get back from my trip!**

** >Moca: ** **o** **h ho ho~** **love can’t wait for you to get back from Kaoru’s cabin~ Ranny gonna get it**

** >Sayo: Please remove me from this group message.**

Lisa looked up from her phone, just in time to have her hopes dashed. Ran jerked away from Yukina and jumped up. She shouted something with a glare, pointed accusingly at Yukina, before throwing open Yukina’s bedroom door and rushing out with an angry huff. Yukina remained still and seated. No no NO! They were so close! There was CONTACT! Lisa groaned against the wall.

**> Tsugumi: Lisa? Are you still there?**

A dozen messages came in the minute she’d looked away. Mostly from Rinko. Girl was really having a rough time waiting for Eve’s samurai virtue to wear out.

**> Lisa: Ran RAN AWAY!**

** >Himari: ** **AH** **!!!!!!**

** >Moca: what exactly did she do**

**> Sayo: I am at work. These text messages are distracting. **

** >Lisa: Shouted. Pointed. And Left.**

** >Moca: Shit. **

**> Moca: we gotta go after her**

* * *

Moca wasn’t even sleepy but they were so darn comfy sleep seemed like the only logical step. This was just about heaven, lying in their bed with some dumb movie Chisato needed to watch for research fading into white noise with Chisato settled and cuddled close, already drifting off in their arms. It made more sense to watch movies in Chisato’s apartment with the big TV and the comfy couch opposed to the place Moca shared with Ran and Tsugumi with their tiny lumpy couchlike furniture and the empty TV stand they propped their laptops on but Moca’s apartment couldn’t be beat in nap readiness. As soon as they’d balanced the laptop on Moca’s stomach and pressed play, Chisato’s eyes were fluttering shut and her breathing evening out.

Moca wanted to join her. Their hand tangled up in Chisato’s hair as they nuzzled the top of her head. Ready for a nice nap afterjust one look at their phone and—

Holy fuck WHAT!!

“Baby wake up!” With as much care as they could muster in their excitement, Moca prodded Chisato awake. “Ran and Yukina are gonna smooch!”

Chisato blinked the sleep from her eyes and squinted. With a hazy drowsy voice she asked, “What?”

Sleepy Chisato was so distracting! She looked so cute and lost as she tried to get her bearings in the world back. If the thing on their phone was anything other than the most important event of their lives Moca’d roll them back over and sleepily cuddle the whole afternoon away. BUT THIS WAS RAN’S LOVE LIFE! IT WAS IMMENSELY IMPORTANT.

Ran had shown romantic interest in exactly one person their entire mostly shared life: Yukina. She’d nurtured that crush for FOUR YEARS and if Lisa’s text was to be believed things were about to get much more interesting. Maybe Moca was too invested in their best friend’s love life, but someone had to be. Ran was never going to get anything done on her own and someday when she was running after little lavender haired babies—or, more accurately, little lavender furred cats—she’d say “Thank you amazing and great Moca for your wisdom and sticktoitiveness.

Moca sat up, pounding their keyboard in response to Lisa’s sudden silence. Chisato wormed her way up Moca’s body, wrapping around their neck and creeping on their phone. She hummed at the conversation but provided no commentary. Until Lisa explained exactly what Ran did. “Oh dear.” Chisato murmured. “Ran messed up.”

Moca felt an odd sort of pride at how Chisato had learned to Ran’s particular moods and actions. She was exactly right. A shout, point and flee meant Ran had said something stupid, tried to turn that thing around and ran away as soon as it failed. Before Moca could politely excuse themselves to go perform Ran whisperer duty, Chisato beat them to the punch.

“We have to go after her.”

“Seriously?” Moca’s eyebrows arched.

Chisato huffed with a smirk, “They’ll never get together on their own and we can’t let them stop now.”

“… I love you so much.”

“I know,” Chisato rolled out of bed with a wink. “Text the others. Let’s get a move on.”

**> Moca: ** **shes on the roof.** **you find yukina we’ll get Ranny**

* * *

Ran was hopelessly in love with Yukina and it really pissed her off.

Sometimes Ran wondered if she could handle these feelings better if she hadn’t met Yukina when she was fifteen and a try hard punk. Maybe if she’d been a more well adjusted seventeen year old when they met she would have had a brief crush like a normal person and moved on with her life. But Ran was fifteen and brand new to “feeling emotions” so she took the fireworks in her chest for gunshots and thought the butterflies in her stomach were invaders.

It was much easier to have a rival than a crush.

Ran rolled her shoulders against the concrete floor, gazing up at the tiny patch of sky she could see from the rooftop. A bird shaped cloud drifted through her sky. No, it was shaped like a smudge but Ran’s stupid brain was stuck on a songbird and projecting the image all over the place.

“Lilac petals on my fingers, maybe these can be your wings.” Ran muttered the lyrics they’d been workshopping before she made a fool of herself. They didn’t mean anything to anyone but Ran. Hang around flowers long enough and you won’t be able to help associating all the people you love with them. She thought of her in lilac. Lilac for how her silver hair looked under stage lights, lilac for first love, lilac because it was notably non-toxic to cats. A lilac songbird soaring across the slivers of sky Ran could only look up at from so far away.

Now when she shut her eyes Ran only saw Yukina staring in unblinking confusion at Ran’s stupid outburst.

_“_ _Are these lyrics not about Aoba?” Yukina leaned over_ _—so close_ _to_ _Ran_ _that she_ _had to hold herself back from sniffing her hair like a freak—pointing softly at a line in Ran’s trusty notebook. “Isn’t it about not wanting her to change?”_

_“Them.” Ran corrected, turning her head away to resist temptation. “Moca uses them and no, it’s about not wanting a relationship to change, even if the person does.” Maybe it was a little about Moca but mostly, Ran kept from screaming, it was about Yukina. She’d already gone too far for Ran to ever catch up to, but Ran still_ _felt compelled to_ _try._

_Yukina frowned, it wasn’t that much different than her usual blank expression. For the thousandth time Ran wondered why this was the person she’d fallen so hard for. “Why?”_

_“Because when you care about someone, you want to keep caring about them, right?”_

_“No, I understand that.” Yukina’s head tilted so slightly anyone other than someone way too attuned to her every move wouldn’t notice. To Ran it was like a strike of lighting. “Why does Aoba use ‘Them’?”_

_Ran tensed as her ride or die instinct kicked in. There was no one she wouldn’t fight for her friends’ sake. Not even her long time crush. “Moca’s not a woman or man. Moca’s non-binary.”_

_Yukina simply stared at Ran. Ran imagined that behind those tarnished gold eyes a small council of Yukina’s was vigorously debating the topic, she hoped she’d come out on the right side._ _Yukina was, as always, a mystery._

_A_ _fter many beats too many, Yukina finally responded. “Then I suppose I am not a woman either.”_

_And then Ran said_ _the stupidest thing to ever fall unfiltered out of her mouth._

Ran gripped her head and groaned at the memory, scratching down her face with her chewed nails and hoping she could just disappear forever without ever having to face the absolute shame of her own bottomless stupidity.

But the world didn’t work so neatly.

* * *

It seemed to Moca that the solution to the world’s money woes was to simply get a rich girlfriend who would pay for things like cabs and fancy sodas. Seemed foolproof. Moca’s commute to school would have been much faster if they just could have taxied there each morning. At least now, Moca could revel in the simple pleasure of having someone else pay for things.

It’d been a year since Moca and their friends had graduated and their old school had the audacity to still look the same. They could have at least repainted the gate so Moca could feel a little less like they’d fallen through a time warp as they met up with Tsugumi and snuck around the back to the eternally unlocked gym entrance. Lisa and Rinko (and not Sayo who reminded them yet again that she was at work and the chat was loud. Ridiculous, when Moca knew full well Sayo could mute a conversation from the seven group chats they’d tried to add her to) headed for Yukina’s favorite cat cafe while the Afterglow crew (plus Chisato, minus Tomoe and Himari off galavanting in the countryside with Kaoru) went for the roof.

Luckily, no teachers were hanging around on a day off to catch a former student council president, an idol and everyone’s favorite high scoring slacker sneaking around and breaking onto the roof. Unfortunately, Ran wasn’t either. The group burst onto Afterglow’s former turf and found someone unfamiliar standing there.

“Yukina?” Tsugumi, the leader of their group by virtue of bravery, asked the figure, causing her to turn with the same confusingly blank expression she’d had every time Moca had seen her over the last four years. Ran had odd taste.

Yukina blinked slowly like she was waking up. “You’re not the member of Afterglow I was hoping to see.”

That was the most roundabout way to say “I’m looking for Ran” that Moca could think of. “Not the first time Moca’s heard that.”

She nodded, “Anyway, hello. I am not a woman.”

First time Moca had heard that particular greeting but who knew what the kids were into these days. “Oh me neither.”

“I know, that’s how I found out I’m not one either.”

Moca could almost _almost_ see the strands of logic in what Yukina was saying and frankly that scared them a little. “NBs inspiring NBs.”

“NB.” Yukina looked satisfied. “I like that.”

“Yukina?” Tsugumi called out cautiously, like approaching a stray cat. ““Do you know where Ran is?”

“No.” Yukina’s brow furrowed very slightly. “That’s why I’m looking for her. Why are you looking for her?”

The two childhood friends looked at one another in panic, realizing they’d been found out. Luckily, Moca’s better half was a professional.

“Band practice,” Chisato improved, demonstrating once again she could have chemistry with a brick wall, “We were thinking of having a jam session but we need Ran.”

Yukina didn’t seem convinced, her eyes narrowed to suspicious slivers.

“With Lisa as well,” Chisato added, invoking the one person Yukina wouldn’t suspect of mischief.

She relaxed and leaned forwards, which seemed to be the Yukina equivalent of jumping up and down, “How interesting, with two bassists and no drums?”

Shit, curveball! But Chisato didn’t miss a beat, “I’ll be playing the drums today.”

Moca wondered if they could convince Chisato to actually try that.

Yukina pulled back, satisfied with the excuse. “We are united in our goal then. Perhaps we should team up?”

“Absolutely!” Tsugumi said. “Except we’ve kind of used up all our Ran hiding spots.”

“Perhaps she’s on another rooftop. She likes high places.” Hold on was Yukina… “Like a cat.” …smiling? Not a serious “for the good of Roselia” smile but a genuine, sparkling, normal twenty year old smile. Moca grabbed Chisato’s shoulder to keep the shock from bowling them over.

“S-she could be,” Tsugumi stammered, as perturbed by Yukina’s happiness. “But what roofs can she get to? The flower school only has one floor.”

“Our apartment building’s roof is locked,” Moca added. “I’ve tried it.”

Tsugumi ran through all their usual haunts. “Marina’s kept CiRCLE’s roof locked up tight ever since Kokoro tried to crowd surf from it.”

“Mr. Satou did the same with Galaxy after Kokoro actually succeeded,” Chisato said.

They all sighed. Where could Ran possibly go? It had to be somewhere she could easily access, somewhere they all visited regularly, somewhere Ran would feel safe and at home.

Yukina broke their thought process. “She’s on the roof of Hazawa Coffee.”

Moca, Tsugumi and Chisato stared at each other, each realizing that Yukina, at least in this one way, was much smarter than them.

“We have roof access,” Tsugumi confirmed. “But the only person with the key is the manager on duty. So, Sayo.”

Moca’s eyes narrowed. “She knew where Ran was the whole time and she never told the group chat!”

Before Yukina could ask what a group chat was, they hurried out of the school. Moca updated Lisa on their journey over.

* * *

Assistant Manager Sayo Hikawa’s face travelled for miles as their odd crew entered Hazawa Coffee, from elation at a surprise visit from Tsugumi, to confusion at Yukina’s sudden appearance, to annoyance as she spied Moca and clued into what was happening. She rushed to cut them off before they could barrel through to the back and up the stairs.

“What are you doing?” She glared specifically at Moca.

Before Moca could respond, Yukina peered around their shoulder and delivered what was apparently going to be her new chosen greeting. “Hello Sayo, I am not a woman.”

“Oh.” Sayo bowed slightly. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“Is this how all their conversations go?” Moca whispered in Tsugumi’s ear.

Tsugumi smiled with sheepish affection. “Pretty much.”

“This is super Sayochi~” Moca nudged Yukina out of the way with their shoulder. “But can you let us on the roof?”

“Absolutely not.” Sayo crossed her arms. “It’s not safe up there.”

With a practiced accusatory point stolen directly from a particular child lawyer show Moca watched more than they’d let their girlfriend know, they jabbed their finger at Sayo. “That’s a lie! You let Ran up there didn’t you?”

Sayo’s eyes shifted to the side. Classic lie move, also something Moca learned from Chisato Shirasagi Ace Attorney. “No.”

“Sayochi~” Moca looped their arm around Sayo’s neck and led her a little bit away from the group, using the sound of the machines grinding up coffee beans to cover their conversation. “Come on~. For the group chat.”

Sayo’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You say you don’t like it, that you don’t want to be looped in… but you didn’t leave did you?” Moca’s eyebrows wagged. “You kept reading Sayochi. You kept _responding._ Admit it. You want Ran and Yukina to get together as much as the rest of us.”

“Of course I do!” Sayo shouted indignantly as the beans finished grinding and the cafe fell into silence. “Yukina is one of my dearest friends! I want nothing less than her complete happiness!”

The other three stared as Sayo realized her outburst was immensely audible. Moca smirked. “Give us the rooftop key.”

“No.” Sayo remained firm, despite her mortification. “Ran asked me not to let anyone up and I must honor that.”

“Sayo, it’s of the utmost importance,” Chisato tried to reason with her.

“So is the promise I made.”

Yukina stepped forward. “Sayo, I must ask you, for the good of Roselia, let me onto the roof.”

Sayo shook her head. “I’m sorry but I fail to see the connection.”

Yukina stumbled back as if Sayo had slapped her in utter shock that her trump card had failed so badly.

“Sayo,” Tsugumi took Yukina’s place, eyes shining with innocence, “Please?”

“Of course Tsugumi,” Sayo said without a trace of hesitation.

Ah. In the end, Sayo was just a well trained dog.

* * *

Unlike the old school roof, the roof of Hazawa Coffee was surrounded by taller buildings giving off the effect of sitting at the bottom of a little basket, cradled by the city. Ran liked that, found it comforting. Until half of her best friends, their girlfriends and the not-a-girl she was trying to avoid came spilling out of the doorway and the roof turned out to be suffocatingly small.

At first Ran could only stare up at the sudden crowd like a turtle who was enjoying the view of the sky until the alligator came along and it realized it was stuck on its back. Then instinct took over and as fast as her body could move, Ran scuttled like a crab to the farthest corner of the roof—just barely out of arms’ reach of the others. She shuffled up the wall, pressing herself completely against the chest high brick wall protecting her from an unfortunate fall. Hopefully it was sturdy, though the broken bones would possibly be worth it if it meant getting out of whatever the hell this was going to be.

“What are you all doing here?” Ran finally managed to croak.

For some unfair reason, Yukina spoke first. “They are looking to play music with you, I however, wish to continue our conversation from earlier.”

That first part was awfully suspicious but the second part sent Ran’s brain into such a panic that she couldn’t focus. “Right now?”

“I went to all this trouble to find you. So please, can you explain yourself?”

“Explain what?” Ran knew exactly what, but maybe, just maybe, Yukina didn’t. If only her friends didn’t look so engaged in the conversation too.

“Why did you say—”  
“Yukina!” The rooftop door flung open again and Lisa burst in, dragging Rinko behind her.

“What timing~” Moca cooed.

Yukina looked over her shoulder at her friends, “Hello Lisa, hello Rinko, I am not a woman.”

Never let it be said Yukina was indecisive.

Rinko lifted up her thumb up in approval. Lisa took it in stride. “Sure, why not? I support you no matter what.”

“I don’t particularly need your support in this but I appreciate having you by my side as always.”

“Ah ha, I love you too Yukina.” Lisa looked around the group and met Ran’s panicked gaze. Ran swallowed her pride and tried to beg for help with her eyes. “Hey, why don’t the rest of us go downstairs, since Yukina and Ran are fine.”

Ran swore she heard Rinko mutter, “And if we lock the door they can’t leave.” But that had to be a misunderstanding.

“No way!” Ran’s troll of a best friend protested. “I have to see this through!”

“Moca,” Lisa groaned.

Yukina didn’t notice or didn’t care about the others. Her eyes were fixed on Ran’s. With even unemotive words Yukina spoke. “When I said, ‘I am not a woman either’ why did you respond: ‘You have to be because I’m a lesbian’?”

Thank you Yukina for making sure everyone knew Ran was a dumb asshole. Which, like, fair. Ran didn’t mean what she said, but she still said it.

“We should go,” Chisato broke the silence and took Moca’s hand, tugging them towards the door.

Any protest Moca had immediately died and they trotted dutifully behind Chisato and out the door. They liked to make fun of Sayo for obeying Tsugumi’s every wish but in the end they were just as whipped. Everyone else followed suit, whatever mania had possessed them to follow Ran all the way here finally extinguished. Everyone except for Yukina.

Ran’s teeth ground against each other. It was so very, very tempting to try to jump off the roof. There was no other way out of this without telling the truth. No. She could just soften the truth. She didn’t have to come out with a grand sweeping confession of love. Not like this on the smokey rooftop without any of the dozen confession flower arrangements Ran idly thought up while teaching grandmas how to pose petunias.

Ran quickly decided on a variant, a simple: “I like you and I said something stupid”. Oopsie doopsie as Moca would say. As long as Ran didn’t mess up and say something like the word “lesbian” instead of “like”. Ran absolutely could NOT say “I lesbian you.” SHE JUST HAD TO SAY LIKE.

“I love you.”

Phew—HOLD ON!

Yukina’s eyes widened, really truly widened, as she waited for Ran to explain herself.

“I’m in love with you and I have been for a long time, but… I’m a lesbian.” Fuck fuck fuck fuck. The truth continued to pour out of Ran’s mouth like coffee from a pot—hot, bitter and probably not to Yukina’s taste.

“Well I’m hardly homophobic Ran. I know many lesbians.” Yukina thought for a second. “At least three.”

She knew a whole lot more than three but Ran bit her tongue. “No it’s like—if you’re not a woman and I’m a lesbian then it can’t work out.”

“So you would like it to work out?” The corners of Yukina’s lips began to curve up.

“That’s what you’re focused on?” Ran gasped exasperatedly.

Yukina tilted her head from left to right. “I’m simply happy to know you knew.”

“K-knew what?”

“That you’re in love with me.” She stepped forward until there was barely room for a hand between them. “I thought you didn’t know yet, so I have been waiting for you to figure things out. I tried to give you little hints.”

Once again Ran felt the call of the ground two stories below. “Excuse me.”

“I am, of course, in love with you too, Mitake,” Yukina confessed in the same tone she said literally everything that wasn’t about her band. “I had hoped our song ‘An Orchid on My Lips’ would clue you in some but unfortunately you are very dense.”

“Pot! Kettle! Minato!” Ran steamed, blood beginning to boil. “I don’t wanna hear that from y— wait.” Ran rewound the conversation in her head. “You’re in love with me?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Heh,” Ran scratched the side of her nose, trying desperately to play it off. “That’s cool I guess.”

“You confessed first.”

Goodbye roof, hello ground!

“Look. This is great,” it was, Ran couldn’t stop smiling in that doofy way she made fun of her friends for. “But it doesn’t solve the lesbian problem.”

“Being a lesbian is not a problem.”

“ARGH!” Ran grabbed her head. “But it is!”

Yukina placed her hand casually along the top of the wall and beside Ran. “I don’t believe my identity and your identity need be mutually exclusive. But, if it makes you feel better, perhaps you can think of things a bit differently.”

Ran’s mouth fell open. “What.”

“I am your first love, correct?” Carefully, Yukina reached out with her free hand and brushed Ran’s red streak from her face.

Ran continued to speak without closing her mouth as Yukina’s hand fell back to her cheek. She was as soft as Ran had imagined. “… yeah.”

“And as of now—” Her hand rounded Ran’s face, palm settling on her cheek as her fingers tickled just under Ran’s ear— “your only love.”

“… … … yes.”

“I suppose then you could say,” Yukina’s face was so painfully close to Ran’s, “that I am your sexuality.”

“Huh.”

“Isn’t that funny?” Yukina chortled to herself. “My gender and your sexuality are the same: Yukina.”

Ran shut Yukina up the only way she knew how: with her lips. It didn’t take much courage, she just had to push the last centimeters between them and suddenly the thing she’d spent too much time imagining over the four years was happening. Ran learned in that moment that she had a terrible imagination.

She hadn’t imagined how precious Yukina would feel as Ran wrapped her arms around her—somehow fragile and unbreakable at once, someone Ran wanted to treasure. She didn’t realize Yukina’s hand would get trapped between them, clutching at Ran’s t-shirt in surprise and holding it as if it were a part of Ran too. How could she know that Yukina’s lip wouldn’t have a taste but would give the feeling that for the first time Ran was a little closer to understanding her?

But Ran was right about one thing, Yukina did smell like lilacs.

When they finally pulled away from each other, hands still lingering, Ran growled almost playfully. “You don’t get to decide my sexuality any more than I can choose your gender.”

“Hmm, that’s probably true.” Yukina rolled her fingers on the back of Ran’s head. “But I don’t really care, I’d just like another one of those lovely kisses.”

Yukina raised an excellent point, Ran couldn’t possibly counter it.

They kissed a second time. And a third. And fourth and fifth until Ran lost count and Yukina began to shiver as the sun began to set. Ran hugged her tight, before tangling their fingers together and pulling her towards the door.

Yukina smiled and Ran’s heart joined her. She squeezed Ran’s hand. “Can’t we figure out the incongruities together?”

“Okay,” Ran nodded, feeling her worries dissolve between them. “What comes next? I never imagined past this part.”

“Hmm.” Yukina tapped her chin. “I think I will accompany you to your jam session.”

Ah, the ever mysterious Yukina returned. Well, at least now she was Ran’s ever mysterious girlfriend. “My what?”

“Chisato is going to play the drums, I’m quite looking forward to it.”

One step at a time indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my friends [Demonladys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonladys/pseuds/demonladys) and [Silversilky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silversilky/pseuds/silversilky) for reading this through for me, make sure to check out their Transdori week content. 
> 
> Named after Feels Like I'm in Love by Kelly Marie. I'm in charge so I get to change the name!


End file.
